Mirage Source

Bitch better remember pingu.

Does anybody know if he is still alive?

Probably in his basement floating face first in a puddle.

its a puddle of blood and liquor

Pingu switched to C++ a long long time ago. I still remember him as being quite ugly but not Magnus-ugly. You can quote me on that.

Chris Kremer
Mirage Online
Playerworlds began as a small project called Mirage Online developed by Chris Kremer, known on the internet scene as Consty. He used Visual Basic 6 and DirectX 7 in order to get his game, title Mirage Online, functioning, making use of the WinSock control for data transfer between the client and the server. It was completed within two weeks and progress was made. It was developed in the style of Final Fantasy, and was developed until version 3.0.3.

Sold to Unformed Realities
After version 3.0.3 was developed, Chris sold the software to Unformed Realities, and all but disappeared from the "Mirage" community.

Unformed Realities
Playerworlds Development
Unformed Realities was and still is a company owned by Shannara. During the time which Unformed Realities owned Mirage Online, Playerworlds was developed. It was developed as way for any user to create their own Mirage online game. It was basic, simple, and easy to use.

JB Computer and Kaelian Software
However soon Shannara found himself with too little time to work on it, and sold rights to Mirage Online to JB Computers (a company owned by Acer, long time member of Mirage online) and sold Playerworlds to Kaelian Software.

Kaelian Software
Kaelian Software, owned by Chad Roddam, took the young software code and created many versions of the software.

1.0cx3 and 1.0cx4
The first release was 1.0cx3, a version which still contained the Mirage Online GUI, but features some small changes. Version 1.0cx4 came soon after, featuring a complete GUI change, as well as bug fixes and other small features. The next release was a small and relatively unknown release which featured an anime-styled GUI, along with large feature updates.

1.3.0 to 1.3.2
The next version, released a year later, was version 1.3.0, which featured a new GUI designed by an online user by the name of Draub, and major feature additions such as advanced scripting capabilities and spell animations and sounds. Two patches were quickly released for post-release bugs, which were 1.3.1 and 1.3.2.

1.4.2 and Collapse
After this, Playerworlds did not see a new release for over a year, when 1.4.2 was released. This version saw many features fixed, and others added, though sloppily. Many exploits were known and used by many groups and individuals to exploit the problems left in the code by Kaelian Software, as well as back-doors that Chad had programmed in order to allow himself control of any server, and to protect his "online identity" from theft. After this, two versions were designed but never officially released by Kaelian Software. After 1.4.2, it seemed as though Kaelian Software had abandoned the Playerworlds Software, and soon the official website was no longer online.

Brady O'Keefe
Playerworlds.org

During the final stretch of Kaelian Software's run of Playerworlds, an alternative community was put online by a former exploiter of the Playerworlds Software, and former Black Hoodz member, Brady O'Keefe. It was under the domain Playerworlds.org, and soon thrived. It became more popular once the official site went offline, and soon became home to the Playerworlds Software and its multitude of users.
Unformed Realities Returns

Tension soon rose as Shannara of Unformed Realities purchased the remaining domains (Playerworlds.com, .net, .info) when they went up for sale. He established a new "official" community and claimed to be resuming work on a copy of the source he had received from Chad Roddam. Many of the veteran community members were outraged at his attempt to "steal" Playerworlds back, and so, not wanting to deal with the trouble, he sold the domains to Brady O'Keefe.

"Playerworlds X"
Now in possession of all of the Playerworlds domains, Brady began developing PlayerworldsX, commonly referred to as PWX since Brady O'Keef claims it was never "PlayerworldsX." This was developed from a source of a fairly unpopular game he had designed from the Mirage Source, which had been released years earlier by Unformed Realities after the hacker TravisX released it. O'Keefe began altering his source code and designing a replacement for the old software.

Alternate Communities
O'Keefe soon met resistance just as Unformed Realities had from the veteran members. Even the newer members who had established themselves in the community were outraged, and soon new Playerworlds communities were surfacing as places where the true Playerworlds software would be supported. These communities included but were not limited to PW Reborn, founded by the users Rezeyu, Alucard, and Hushed, and Playerworlds Classic, founded by users Magnus and Vibe.

XtremeWorlds & Trademark Issues
As PWX went further into production is was renamed "XtremeWorlds" as a play off of Playerworlds, yet to seem different. Many members of the community were still angry with the fact that his software was being advertised on the Playerworlds website. Soon, this drove some veteran members to legal measures. In a somewhat underhanded move, James Will, who went by the online alias Magnus, aided by the user Vibe, applied for the legal trademark on the name "Playerworlds" and eventually convinced O'Keefe to sell him the domains.

James Will
Renewal
Will soon converted his Playerworlds Classic community into the new Playerworlds community and began work from the Mirage Source on a new Playerworlds after discussing it with several key community members. It features increases in speed, advanced scripting capabilities, form reduction, and other optimizations along with extra security and encryption. Will was not about to follow in the back door designing footsteps of Kaelian Software.

Beta Series
Soon, Beta 6 was released as a precursor to Playerworlds Build 1. This version was found to have several bugs and errors, and so Willreleased Beta 7, only this was to be the final release before Playerworlds 2.0, which is currently in development, largely by Robin Perris, who was brought in as the lead programmer in October of 2007.

Playerworlds Lite
Perris soon left the project as he had others, and Will continued developing a stable engine to renew the vigor of the Playerworlds title. Planning for a more enhanced version in the future, Will released what he called "Playerworlds Lite" which was to be the traditional style of game design that previous Playerworlds users had grown accustomed too. Minor issues sprung up but were soon patched.

Playerworlds 2.0
Sometime in 2008, Will brought in Matthew as the lead developer on Playerworlds 2.0, which would now be a switch the more common and better supported language of Visual Basic .NET 2008. It would expand the possibilities of the software and make it easier for users to install and use. This version is still in production with no estimated time of release.

Slight Bias, retrieved from my personal archives.

James, in all honesty, none of your stuff comes anywhere close to the old Konfuze. Give some credit to Unreal, Fox and GSD.

I agree, It seems all about the beginning of MS and PW. :/